Today's Topics

See what you missed with Slater & Meg on Live 95.9

Dogs Communicate With Their Eyes

by Meg Duley,posted Jul 3 2014 4:37AM

They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and apparently the same can be said of dogs. New data from Japan reveals that wolves and dogs are capable of communicating using only their eyes. Researchers compared the characteristics of the face and eyes among 25 different types of canines.

They found that species with the most striking eyes tended to live and hunt in groups, where eye-based communication was needed to bring down large prey. Species with camouflaged eyes were more likely to live alone or in pairs, where communication may not be needed as much. Previous studies have shown that domestic dogs are more likely to make direct eye contact with humans than wolves raised in the same setting. This suggests that dogs are more in tune with humans, and see humans as "socially useful."